AbeBooks book blog

Towering Deep-sea diver in Jules Verne’s Hometown of Nantes

How fantastic. In Adventure and fantasy writer’s Jules Verne‘s hometown of Nantes, France, the Estuary 2009 Arts Festival will include a 9.5- metre-tall deep-sea diver, the latest creation from French mechanical marionette street theater company Royale de Luxe.

The theater company includes elaborate stories with each of their creations, and the giant deep-sea diver is no exception. His history includes the Titanic, a dead sister, a missing niece, secret messages from geysers and a job spent sawing icebergs.

On Friday, the giant “woke” and made his way through the town, to the delight, admiration and astonishment of onlookers. The functioning marionette weighs two and a half tons, and requires 30 people to operate and move him.

I can only imagine Jules Verne, with his love of adventure, a story well told, and the grandiose, would approve.